Social media. Well, what is this exactly? We all know the answer. Although this answer may differ from our mothers considering you only see her use Match.com. Social media is a more recent development in the technology world and has been able to offer mass communication and interaction from people to people across the globe. Among the popular social media sites are, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. Everywhere you look, there are adolescent girls scrolling through pictures and updating profiles, not knowing how much they are giving up in order to post that picture of their Starbucks coffee. This is a PSA to all social media users. How much do you really know about your social media sites?

Of course, Steve Jobs did not predict his Apple product to start the decline in face-to-face communication. He was concentrated on the fact that he could be the man behind the relayed message “snow day” to children across campus in one instant with the press of a button. But, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

First off, lets get the facts straight. 56% of Americans actually have a profile on some sort of social media site. This is starting to increase each year as well, as more sites are introduced to the public. Some people can not even help but find themselves on their phone stalking their new crush when they promised themselves they would get that history homework done in an hour. Social media has become a “social habit.” According to an article by Jay Baer posted on Convince and Convert, 22% of Americans use social media sites several times per day. Just in the past year itself, there has been 12 million Americans that are using these sites daily (http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-res...).

In my opinion, social media is a neutral object. It is all about who uses it and how it's used. Similar to the issues going on around gun control in the media, should we be blaming the guns or blaming the people? This ties into social media and technology as well. Maybe it’s not the websites we should be placing the blame on, but instead we should be blaming the fingers typing. Additionally, I encourage you to take a step back and look at what you are giving up in order to have a profile on these sites. Take note that it is certainly not irony that the ring you were just looking at on another webpage popped up as an advertisement on the side of your Facebook wall. Have you ever noticed the sponsored pages that appear on your Instagram news feed? These too have also been purposely placed on your feed. By agreeing to those rights and policies on the start up pages on your social media sites, you are agreeing to much more than you think you are. Although my generation is going to be among the most knowledgeable and advanced, we are also the most naive. I do not know one friend of mine that is not apart of a social media site. No one is to blame, we all want to feel wanted and get that "like" on our no makeup selfie. But is that selfie just shown to your followers? Who ACTUALLY has the right to the photos and status' you post? On an even bigger scale, who has access to your saved credit card info on your laptop?

There is a manipulative game behind these sites that frankly no one is truly aware of. Here and there you will see your friends post status’ about how they “do not give Facebook any rights, etc.,” but before you laugh and just post this status because all your friends are, I would advise looking into the reasoning behind this all. Before you spend the day on Twitter or Pinterest, I would check the privacy settings and do some further research as to what you are allowing these sites to access. In the end, how much of your internet search are you willing to allow the public to see? To the 56% of Americans that have profiles on some sort of site; I ask you, how much time are you really willing to spend on these sites knowing you actually do not have the “privacy” you thought you did.